One of the key areas involved in academy management is data. For any organisation, in any sector, data underpins almost all aspects of their operations. MATs are no exception; where accurate data is required to measure performance, assess curriculums, and monitor attendance rates, just to name a few. From a performance perspective alone, data can provide valuable insights into areas of strength and weakness, enabling MAT leaders to identify areas for improvement and allocate resources effectively.
By analysing this data, MAT leaders can identify trends and patterns, enabling them to implement targeted interventions and strategies to improve educational outcomes. Moreover, data can also help MATs benchmark their administrative performance against national standards, allowing them to set realistic goals and measure their progress over time. Perhaps the most important goal of a MAT is to improve educational outcomes, and therefore having quantifiable insights from assessment data can give them the necessary information to continue evolving for the benefit of their pupils.
A Winning Strategy
Implementing a data strategy enables trust-wide visibility and therefore demands consistency in data collection and analysis. A data strategy consists of the data needed, the format it will be collected in, who needs it, how that data will be transformed into insights and those insights can be actioned. The sheer volume of data that can be accessed by MATs is greater than ever before, but it can actually end up reducing clarity over data objectives. This is where a data strategy will come into play and define exactly what's required, mitigating the risk of wasted resources.
There are platforms designed specifically for MATs to share data between schools and keep it secure, accessible and up-to-date. They also standardise the data from various sources and ensure that comparisons can easily be made. Due to the multiple sources where data is collected from, having one central hub for managing it all becomes a highly attractive option for MATs. The amount of hours required to tie together data from surveys, spreadsheets, the MIS, the LMS, HR and financial software and third party curriculum apps can be unfeasible, especially when it's multiplied across the individual schools.
In order to obtain a holistic view of an academy’s overall performance, trusts will measure and assess specific metrics focussing on students, teachers and other staff. Examples include students attainment (including progress over time), teacher performance, wellbeing, and parent and student satisfaction. MAT leaders will aim for high standards of performance across the individual academies so being able to make comparisons means they can identify areas of weakness, allowing for targeted interventions to be made.
Data Challenges
While data can be a powerful tool in MAT management, there are also challenges associated with data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Some common challenges include:
1) Data Quality: Ensuring that data is accurate, complete, and up-to-date can be a challenge in itself, where data discrepancies and errors can undermine the reliability of analysis and therefore impede decision-making.
2) Data Integration: If a MAT has multiple systems and databases, it becomes difficult to integrate data from different sources. This can result in fragmented and inconsistent data, making analysis and interpretation more challenging. This problem also often scales as a MAT grows; a small problem with a small trust can develop into a big problem in a big trust.
3) Data Privacy and Security: Complying with data protection regulations, such as The Data Protection Act 2018 and ensuring that sensitive data is stored securely is paramount for avoiding data leaks, especially in the event of a cyber attack.
Novatia’s Solutions
In order to mitigate these challenges and ensure data is being managed and used optimally, MATs can choose to use data audits from third party organisations that’ll provide an unbiased overview of their current data strategy and management. At Novatia, we offer comprehensive data audits and support with the development of effective data strategies for MATs, using decades of experience.
Our data audits and strategy services will result in a detailed data strategy report, identifying the main commitments for the trust with short-term and long-term recommendations, as well as a data audit report that contains the current data risks, data flows and analyses. Furthermore, our data flow diagrams and software and system registers allow you to get a summary of data flow throughout the MAT as a whole and a comprehensive record of all systems containing data. If you’d like to find out more about our data services, simply click the button below to view our product sheet:
Conclusion
Data plays a vital role in effective MAT management. By collecting and analysing relevant data, MATs can gain valuable insights into their schools' performance, identify areas of improvement, and make data-driven decisions that lead to better outcomes. However, data management in MATs comes with its own set of challenges that may require the outside perspective of third party IT and data specialists to give a clear overview of their current data usage.
If you are a MAT leader or educator interested in improving the visibility, use, management or protection of your data, get in touch with us for a friendly chat about how we can help you.
